"While minority bachelor's degree recipients reported no rise in employment — from 48.6 percent in 2009 to a statistically comparable 49.1 percent in 2010 — nonminority graduates saw employment levels improve from 63.9 percent to 67 percent. The gap of 18 percentage points between the level of employment of non-minority and minority graduates in 2010 is the largest ever recorded in the graduate survey," Whaley wrote.

". . . The job market improvements seen were not even, according to Lee B. Becker," professor of journalism and director of the Cox Center and the survey. " 'Graduates who had specialized in news-editorial journalism actually experienced a dramatic decline in full-time employment levels in 2010 compared with 2009. The fact that only half of them found a full-time job six to eight months after graduation is unprecedented,' he noted.

". . . Web work was more prominent with 2010 graduates than with 2009 graduates. Two-thirds of the degree recipients who found work in communication were involved with writing and editing for the web. Eight in 10 of the graduates with communication jobs are researching materials using the web, and more than half are using social network sites in their jobs, a sharp increase from a year earlier.

"Communication technologies also played a larger role for the graduates. 'They were more likely to be doing non-linear editing, photo imaging, using a video camera and producing content for mobile devices,' Becker said. 'All of the differences are small, but the overall pattern is clear enough.'

"Tucker, who won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007, assumes her new role Aug. 12, the AJC and UGA announced Wednesday.

"They said her position at UGA will be part of a partnership between the AJC and the university’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"Tucker, 56, was editorial page editor of AJC from 2001 to 2009, when she moved to Washington as a political columnist in a realignment of the opinion-editorial department.

"Her last regular column appeared Sunday.

"She said Wednesday she feels 'a twinge of sadness' at ending her long run as a columnist.

" 'But I’m very excited at the prospect of teaching at a university and the opportunity that will give me to write in longer form as well,' she said, adding when asked, 'There’s definitely a book in my future.'

"Tucker said she will move back to Atlanta from Washington and commute to Athens, where she expects to start teaching a course in persuasive writing in the spring semester."

She said then, "This new opportunity not only gives me a chance to witness a historic presidency up close, but it also allows me to focus on what citizens all over the country are focused on — politics out of Washington."

"Amidst the failure to explain there is also a blame game. But all, it appears, agree on one thing — it must be stopped and the police efforts to restore order must be supported.

"So The Guardian editorial's final words, 'Right now, this is about control,' are echoed in every leading article and, to an extent, on increasingly opinionated front pages too.

"But, as one might expect, the right-wing papers have a much more militant demand for 'control' and, of course, for the subsequent punishment of rioters.

"A clear example is the Daily Express. Its front page headline 'Sweep scum off our streets" is backed up with an editorial that says: 'The British have had enough... of the softly softly treatment of yobs. We do not want to hear about their grievances. We want them to be stopped, arrested, imprisoned... The criminal underclass of skiving welfare dependents has been indulged for too long.' "

"We go to London to speak with journalist Darcus Howe, a longtime critic of police brutality in black and West Indian communities across the U.K., and author and blogger Richard Seymour of the popular British site 'Lenin’s Tomb,' " she said.

" 'There is a mass insurrection. And I’m not talking about rioting; I’m talking about an insurrection that comes from the depths of society, from the consciousness, collectively, of the young blacks and whites, but overwhelmingly black, as a result of the consistent stopping and searching young blacks without cause,' says Howe of the uprising.

"Seymour notes that anti-terror legislation has led to an unprecedented number of stops, predominantly of youth of color, but protests against the stops have been largely ignored by the British media. 'A political establishment, a media, and a state system that gives people…the impression that they won’t be listened to, unless they force themselves onto your attention, is going to lead to riots,' says Seymour."

Thoms and Beth C. Hoppe, who will hold the same title, "will help implement PBS’ primetime content strategy, a multi-year effort to strengthen the organization’s primetime lineup and deliver on its ongoing commitment to serve the American people with outstanding content that reflects the high quality and diversity of perspective that viewers expect from PBS," PBS announced on Thursday.

". . . Working in collaboration with producers, Ms. Hoppe and Mr. Thoms will take a proactive approach to program development from idea generation to air. They will be responsible for finding new ways of engaging audiences across platforms, refreshing existing programs and, as appropriate, commissioning new programs.

". . . As President of ThomsMediaGroup (TMG) from 2009 until his new appointment to PBS, Mr. Thoms led the multimedia consulting organization, focusing on television production and development, as well as on-air talent development, coaching and casting. His clients include Discovery, WNED, Scripps Networks, Verizon, the Travel Channel and MTV."

". . . Mr. Thoms previously served at PBS as Vice President, Program Management from 1993 to 1999, where his accomplishments including the creation of the award-winning series INDEPENDENT LENS, which is preparing for its 10th season year on the air, and The Red Book, the document that established the guidelines for program delivery, which PBS continues to use today."

"Holmes contributed to CNN’s political coverage during the 2006 and 2008 elections, and has also contributed to NBC’s 'Dateline and 'Nightly News,' as well as ABC’s 'The View.' She left as a contributor to CNN in 2009."

Holmes' bio also lists service on Black Entertainment Television, where she interviewed newsmakers as host of "Lead Story" in 2002.

More than 500 members of the Asian American Journalists Association kicked off their organization's 30th anniversary convention Wednesday with a reception at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Mich., where they were treated to a generous helping of food, music, greetings from the city's dignitaries and pleas for tolerance.

Dearborn is "the home of the largest Arab community outside of the Middle East," Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, emcee and sponsor of the event, told the assembled.

John B. (Jack) O'Reilly Jr., the city's mayor, said, "We celebrate everyone in this town" and added, "there are people looking to blame someone," naming Republicans Newt Gingrich and former Nevada Senate candidate Sharon Angle. Angle said last fall that Islamic sharia law had "taken hold" of some U.S. cities.

"We want you to be informed," O'Reilly said.

Robert A. Ficano, county executive of Wayne County, which includes Dearborn and Detroit, called his the "most diverse county in the state of Michigan, if not in the Midwest," and urged the journalists to"believe what you see and not always what you've heard previously."

Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times, helped AAJA's J-Camp program for high school journalists celebrate its 11th year, and News Corp. awarded two students $1,500 scholarships. Executives of the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press were present, as was Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli. Other industry leaders came in as part of AAJA's Executive Leadership Program.

Doris Truong, national president, told the group that the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was on the convention agenda, along with a showing of the 1987 film, "Who Killed Vincent Chin?"

Chin was a Chinese American beaten to death in 1982 in the Detroit enclave of Highland Park during a period of anti-Asian sentiment directed at the Japanese, who were blamed for taking jobs from American workers. Chin's two accused killers were acquitted of all charges in the federal case and received three years probation in the state trial.

Kathy Chow, executive director of AAJA, said it was too early to determine convention attendance figures.

Richard Prince's Journal-isms originates from Washington and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It began in print before most of us knew what the Internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a "column." For newcomers: The words in blue (on most computers) are links leading to more information. The Web site BugMeNot.com provides passwords and user names to some registration-only news sites, but use may be illegal in some states. Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity.

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